SET 8 Learning to read SPELD SA Phonic Books support the teaching of reading by using a structured synthetic phonics approach. They are designed to build on the pre-reading skills of oral language and phonological awareness needed for reading success. The books support the learning of letter-sounds and blending in a sequential phonic order, helping students to develop their independent decoding skills. The books also contain limited high frequency words that need to be taught before reading the book. The questions and activities focus on increasing a student’s vocabulary and fluency and encourage the student to make deeper connections with the author’s message. The footy game (135 words) Before reading the book, use the practice page to: 1. Revise the alternative spellings for sounds 2. Teach the blending of letter-sounds in regular words The student points to each letter or combination of letters, saying the sound they represent. Swipe left to right under the letters, saying the sounds quickly and smoothly together to read the word. e.g. p-i-le is ‘pile’; j-o-ke is ‘joke’; f-oo-t-y is ‘footy’. During single word practice, check that the student understands the meaning of the word. If the student is having difficulty hearing the word when blending: • repeat the sounds more than once in succession to help the student ‘hear’ the word • model stretching the sounds together without pauses, e.g. nnnniiiiiip, is ‘nip’ • use letter tiles and push them together while saying the sounds. 3. Teach the high frequency words Tell the student the words and determine any ‘tricky’ parts by breaking up the word into its sounds. Many high frequency words will be able to be sounded out later as the student learns more sounds and how they are written. Reading tips The footy game A combination of letters can represent a sound, such as in boat (b-oa-t), song (s-o-ng), fern (f-er-n), shout (sh-ou-t), or night (n-igh-t). A sound can be written as different letters or letter combinations, such as the sound /ai/ in Written by Jacqui Edwards. Illustrated by Trent Lambert. ‘rain’, ‘play’, ‘make’, the sound /ee/ in ‘sleep’, ‘heat’, ‘happy’ and the sound /ou/ in ‘shout’ and ‘brown’. A letter or letter combination can also represent different sounds, such as <ow> in ‘how’ and ‘grow’ or <y> in ‘yellow’,’try’ and ‘mystery’. Words can contain split vowel digraphs, such as in ‘make’, ‘eve’, ‘bite’, ‘note’ and ‘tune’. SPELD SA The suffix ‹ed› can represent the sound /d/ as in ‘rubbed’, /t/ as in ‘packed’ and /id/ as in ‘landed’. Phonic Book Series Words can contain schwa vowel sounds. The schwa is pronounced as an /uh/ sound, such as in, ‘Nana’, ‘butter’, ‘across’, ‘the’. Explore with the student which part of the word has the schwa sound by breaking the word into its sounds. Take note of how the schwa sound is spelt. Practice page Vocabulary Set 8 includes words with alternate spellings for the sounds /ai/, /ee/, /ie/, /oa/ and /ue/. The words on this page can be used to help the student’s comprehension before, during or after reading the book. Link the meanings of words with what the student already knows, Practise blending sounds in words show examples or have students act out the words. y /ee/ footy happy Sammy specky – a big jump, a spectacular mark in Australian Rules football a-e /ai/ shakes game Dave mates – friends piles on the bus – get on the bus, quickly i-e /ie/ pile arrive drive take the mark – catch the ball in Australian Rules football o-e /oa/ joke home to be a good sport – to play fairly and be a good teammate hand-ball – pass the football in Australian Rules football, by /ee/ we using a closed fist and punching it to another e player i /ie/ siren just on the siren – something happens on the field just as the siren blows to end the game o /oa/ oval o’clock Help with syllables Practise high frequency words um/pire onto the to before winn/ing your all give others morn/ing one more are everyone happ/y foot/y ball talk si/ren a/rrive In the morning, we pile onto the We arrive at nine o’clock, start bus and drive the long road to the jogging around the oval and kicking footy game. the ball before the big game. 1 2 Kenny kick the ball! Gav, take the mark! We all line up and the umpire starts The coach shouts out, ‘‘Kenny, kick the game. Brrrrrr! the ball! Gav, take the mark!’’ 3 4 Dave is free! Quick! Give it to him! “Dave is free! Quick! Give it to him! “One more point to win!” Look at Sammy take a specky! Kenny kicks the winning goal just Hand-ball the footy to your mates, on the siren. Everyone shakes hands not the others!” because we are good sports. 5 6 We pile on the bus and start the We talk about that game until the long trip home. Everyone is very next one, next week. happy and jokes around on the bus. 7 8 From blending to fluency Fluency chart To develop fluency, the student needs to re-read the same book multiple times. Students might initially sound out every word and re-read every sentence but, with practice, blending will become more automatic. The fluency chart can be used to develop automaticity of up win long free blending by providing single word blending practice. While reading the book, the student: • blends the sounds of each unknown word in the sentence • identifies and reads high frequency words road week kick coach • re-reads the sentence from the beginning • discusses the meaning of the sentence When finished, the student needs to re-read the whole book and practise reading the same home nine mark game book until they can read at a steady pace with minimal sounding out. Making connections - questions and discussion pile point footy next After the student has read the book, or the relevant page, ask them one or more of the following questions and discuss: 1. Why was everyone happy and joking around on the bus on the trip home? drive siren shakes shouts 2. Have you been to a footy game? Talk about what the umpires and coach do. arrive winning morning umpire 3. Why is it important to shake hands with the opposition after the game? 4. Do you know the rules for Australian Rules football? How many points are in a goal? (6) What might the score board look like at the end of the game? 5. The word ‘footy’ is short for football and the word ‘specky’ is short for spectacular. Are there any words that you shorten to make them easier to say? Do you have a nickname or shortened name? SPELD SA Phonic Books follow the sequence of letter-sounds used in the Jolly Phonics synthetic phonics program. The books can be used with other phonics programs. Set 1 s, a, t, p, i, n Set 2 c, k, ck, e, h, r, m, d Set 3 g, o, u, l, f, b Set 4 ai, j, oa, ie, ee, or Set 5 z, w, ng, v, oo (book), oo (room) Set 6 (think), (that) Cover artwork by Elizabeth Close y, x, sh, ch, th th Elizabeth Close is an Anangu woman from the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara language groups in the Set 7 qu, ou, oi, ue, er, ar APY Lands in outback South Australia. She was born in Adelaide and spent much of her upbringing in remote Set 8 (sunny), (apron), (cake), (female), (eve), (silent), (kite), communities, learning her language and receiving cultural education. y a a-e e e-e i i-e o (open), o-e (home), u (student), u-e (tune) ‘This artwork represents the literacy and numeracy learning journey, and the path towards independent learning. The circles represent the collaborative learning and supports around children with specific learning difficulties, Set 9 ay (play), ey (they), oy (toy), y (mystery), ea (dream), ie (chief), y (dry), including children, schools, families, SPELD SA and others.’ Elizabeth Close, Artist. igh (night) About this series Set 10 oe (toe), ow (rainbow), ow (now), ir (bird), ur (turn), ew (few), au (launch), aw (paw), al (talk) The SPELD SA Phonic Book Series complements the teaching of reading and writing using a structured synthetic phonics approach. SPELD SA aims to help Aboriginal students engage with phonic books by having characters, content and settings that reflect Aboriginal communities. In developing this series, SPELD SA has consulted with people who live and work in the Anangu, Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands. We understand that the content, settings and characters may not reflect all Aboriginal people and their experiences but hope that Aboriginal students learning to read can find some familiarity in and connection with these books in their literacy journey. Each set of books introduces a group of sounds for students to blend to read words. The books with a single star icon on the front cover contain a lower word count and less high frequency words. The books with two stars contain a higher word count, a greater number of high frequency words and/or more complex word structure. Please Reproduction of this material, as a whole, with appropriate acknowledgment, for non- consider your student’s ability when choosing a book for them to read. For a comprehensive explanation of the commercial or private purposes is permitted. Text and images remain the intellectual structure of the series, please refer to the SPELD SA website.